Turning on the light

“I did what I had to do because it was the right thing to do, that is all. We are all ordinary people, but even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can within their own small way turn on a small light in a dark room.” – Miep Gies.

These words have stuck with me tonight, what Miep was saying is that we all have the capability to help people or do something spectacular – we just need to find it with in ourselves to do so. Turning on that small light, whether it be for ourselves or for someone else, is just one small act but an effective one. So effective for Miep that she is actually considered a hero by some people, her true point with saying the above quote was to point out that if she was a hero then everyone else is too – she only did the right thing.

I have a lot of heroes, each one for different reasons, but I am also aware that if I turn on my light then I have the capability to be someone else’s hero – although I wouldn’t like to be called one – so far I haven’t had a chance to turn on my light, but I am still young and I am sure the opportunity is yet to come. When it does come I hope I have the bravery and sense to brighten up the room, it’s all fine and well for me to say I would take on an act of bravery such as Miep Gies did, but I will never truly know if I would until I have been given an opportunity to prove myself.

In the meantime I guess the only thing I can do is keep shining as bright as I can in the hope that I can help others until the defining moment is final presented to me. Today I spent time on twitter sending strangers, who had posted about being sad, encouraging and positive messages in the hope to help them. The response I got was incredible. I expected maybe one or two people to get back to me, but around 7 people got back to me telling me how much I had helped them or made their day. One person even said something that really made me understand the effect my words have. “It’s good to know there are people like you in the world.”

People who take their free time and spend it helping others gain happiness or a more positive attitude. Helping people find the lamp in their personal dark room and showing them the switch. Making a genuine difference through words alone. It is actually upsetting how much a simple “chin up, everything will get better” can positively affect someone. Do people really not say stuff like this to their friends? If they don’t then they aren’t true friends because they don’t want you to find your light, they are too busy searching for their own that you are forgotten about.

Who are we if we only ever spend our time helping ourselves to things we don’t deserve yet. The thing with lights is we have to earn them, we can’t just sit back and wait for them to turn on for us…that’s plain laziness. To truly find the light inside our dark rooms we have to help others find theirs or at least help them see a glimpse of it. A glimpse can change everything, a glimpse changed my whole attitude to life. I woke up today a more positive person because I got a glimpse of how truly amazing I can be. I just need to find the lamp and switch it on.

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Jodie Paterson

I’m Jodie Paterson, a 23 year old Edinburgh based blogger who is passionate about blogging, writing, social media and photography. Currently studying Events Management at University, blogging still remains a large hobby of mine.